Looking for this: Yuiko Tokumi stuff

(tags stick poster, poster, anime, gal-ge, zettai ryouiki)

I'd like to think I learn from blind purchasing, but I'm just barely checking the Yahoo Auctions for illustrator Yuiko Tokumi == Hakka-ya stuff (keywords: 「篤見唯子」 or 「薄荷屋」), before I head out today.

Looking at that page reminded me about the stick poster postings I promised to show. Well here's one from my collection illustrated by Tokumi, on the right.

Yes, Comic Market 73 ended yesterday, but will those returning-to-Kinki-area otaku resell their stuff to K-Books, et al, in time for me to scoop them up today and tomorrow? I doubt it. I bet you the action day is January 2nd, Wednesday. I don't really want to spend that much time in Den Den Town, yikes.

Digging for treasure: Boulderdash and others

(tags game, Dual Screen, GameBoy Advance, Xbox 360, RPG, shmup, puzzle)

Yesterday, I completed Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time in about 21 hours in-game time. There's not much left to do in it because there are really no side quests except for collecting more items of dubious worth. There aren't any more interesting enemies to fight either, so there's no sense in leveling up.

I collected 166 beans from the map, and probably won 1 from a mini-game. I need 450 beans (10 + 20 + 30 + 40+ 50 + 60+ 70 + 80 + 90) to get all the "ultimate" badges, but the only way to get more beans is to play "pachinko/slot machine" at 5 beans a win, for the remaing 283. That's not fun. M&L is over for me.

So I tried out some other games. Gradius Generations for the GBA kills me with cheep death but I managed to get to level 3 without continuing. I was buzzing out of habit.

Atari Arcade Hits for the GBA, ugh I still suck at Tempest. Oh wait I have this on the DS, gotta try that some time.

Boulderdash EX for the GBA? It's surprisingly engaging as a puzzler. I got this game a long time ago to make up for missing the Apple II version. Classic mode sure looks ugly.

And I popped in Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, despite my dread. Right now the battles are easier than I thought. I am having fun without worrying too much about positioning and Laws. I was even Judgement Point scraping. What do you mean I can only reap 10 JP from this nearly dead guy here? But the item changing and job system doesn't make much sense to me. Also the GBA's small screen gets in the way of figuring out which item/weapon is better. It sure it more convenient to play M&L. Still, 13 hours in-game, so the clock says. And the music reminds me of Final Fantasy XII, but of course FFTA came first.

And this morning was a little bit of Hexic HD (Xbox 360). Every time I get rid of a bomb I say "GTFO". It's stress relief.

All of this to resist the thought of new game purchases. Yeah right. I'm going out today and tomorrow. Let the money flow freely. :-)

x8 !!!! Shikigami no Shiro 3

(tags game, Xbox 360, shmup, telephone card)

I did succumb to new game purchase. I bought Shikigami no Shiro 3 for the Xbox 360 (式神の城3). I couldn't say no to zettai ryoiki on the telephone card. (A Gamers exclusive). What can I say, I miss playing shmups, and Ikaruga isn't coming out this month. Plus I was disappointed that Shikigami no Shiro 2 wasn't compatible with Xbox 360 . I want to scratch/buzz, man, real hard.

It's pretty fun if I stick with the beginner's character Kuga. Basically with Kuga I don't have to worry about shooting, just dodge and buzz for "x8" multiplier. I haven't credit feeded it but already I unlocked unlimited credits, probably playing it 40+ times already. I'm trying to get past level 3 without continuing. I don't think I will be unlocking the Achievements without continuing though. I keep saying to myself, just credit feed this run because I want to see the story, but then my untainted high score keeps on increasing, so I don't.

I like the character voices this time. I think voice for the shikigami Saya is Ayako Kawasumi (川澄綾子), excellent. I also like the enemy Yukari Horiguchi "version 2" which I think is Ryoko Shintani (新谷良子). She's so off the wall. There's also a randoseru (with a Bubble Bobble character imprinted on it?!) girl that is in a deep voice, but when in high voice sounds just like tsundere voice goddess Rie Kugimiya (釘宮理恵). I'll visit the official page later to get the real clue though.

The character graphics are excellent to my moe eyes, especially Yukari Horiguchi "version 2" china suit. If I press Y at a gallery page, the character says something random that goes with their expression. Nice.

There is a story, but this time the writers want to make it funny by breaking the fourth wall and making everything a gag. It's a change from the first two outings, which is fine by me. When I have tag-team "Dramatic battle", the two characters I pick have a short scenario dialogue just for them. In other words, there are 8 x 7 + 8 == 64 10 x 9 + 10 == 100 different dialogues! It's not very witty, not very serious, but light hearted.

But the Xbox controller is not very fun. I'm playing it by the D-pad. Well, I can almost get past level 3 with it, so it can't all be bad. But this particular controller seems to be iffy when pressing right. I haven't attributed a death to this yet, but it will come. And then the controller throwing will begin. I am somewhat desperate for a joystick or a better D-pad. Ugh, no joysticks available for under 1_0000 yen.

Right now I'm resting my hand because I was gripping the Xbox controller for too long. But I want to continue. No I mean I want to start the game from the beginning, but... ok, you know what I mean.

(edit: There are 10 characters to choose, not just 8.)

Putting off new game purchases? Mario & Luigi and Wipeout Pure

(tags game, Dual Screen, RPG, PlayStation Portable, racing)

On Thursday and Friday, I tried to see if that PlayStation Portable game Suzumiya Haruhi no Yakusoku (涼宮ハルヒの約束) was up for purchase, but it looks like it totally sold out at all the stores I know. And the inevitable Yahoo Auctions (search phrase:「涼宮ハルヒの約束」) shows a seller's frenzy. I'm not really in the mood for a text adventure which is why I didn't bother to pre-order, but the completist in me is saying that my DVD set needs a companion. (The voices, I hear them.)

I am still trying to put off game purchasing by playing games I have. Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time is still slow going because of my need to collect everything. It's... slow. But at least it should be more rewarding that trying to play Final Fantasy Tactics (GBA) or Final Fantasy 1 (PSP). Both of those just sounds like work to me.

And I woke up yesterday, playing WipeOut Pure. I haven't even gold-award cleared the Venom single races (Venom is the second step of five difficulty levels) so I spent some time on it. Sometimes it feels slow but that's only because I am trading paint with the walls. Still it feels pretty smooth when I don't.

My mom said yes to Peggle on the iPod, but I think I'll purchase it when I go back to work early next month. That is, if I don't want to play Rubik's Cube on the bus, which is unlikely.

Erecting walls, bouncing off/through them: Peggle

(tags game, iPod)

Back when I was in the States earlier this year, my mum introduced me to Peggle, the PopCap game. It was gosh darn fun, and even my cousins were lining up to play. So when I saw that it was on the iPod for "only" 600 yen, I considered it.

But I'm trying to stop the flow of money spending so I sent my mom an email about it before whipping out the credit card. But thinking it through, even if she says its not worth it, I'll probably get it because I think the control will be good on this.

And as an aside, I see that PopCap Games are having a half-off sale. Hm. HM.

Go ahead and call me a coward: I Am Legend

(tags movie, science fiction, horror)

This weekend I watched the Will Smith movie I Am Legend. I went in without seeing so much as a trailer, though I did have to navigate to the official movie site to find a theatre. What breathtaking visuals. If Hollywood visual tech keeps improving like this, we won't be able to tell the difference between reality and CG (except for humans, I'm sure).

I must admit, I did not expect "horror" from this movie going in. And I hate to admit it, but images from the movie had me sleeping uneasy last night. And maybe tonight as well?

I like movies with simple plot resolution and an opening for questions. Too bad my movie companion did not want to discuss it much. "Wasn't it a great movie?" "Swell". WTF.

The original work is a novella by Richard Matheson in 1954. The movie however seems to be only related in concept, according to a review by Village Voice. No wonder there wasn't much use of the Internet. This makes me want to read the book.

Plus there's some mention of Bob Marley the singer. Smith's description of the artist "shot down but goes on" impressed me. He makes me want to find some music or at least read the wikipedia page on him. Hah.

The rest of my gibbering thoughts are in ROT-13: SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS

Ubj pbhyq gur znva punenpgre Arivyyr nffrzoyr uvf onfr bs bcrengvbaf jvgu gbbyf naq obzo-oneenpnqrf nyy ol uvzfrys?

Gung svefg gvzr jura Arivyyr tbrf vagb gur ohvyqvat naq fuvarf gur fcbgyvtug ba gur srrqvat cbfg-uhznaf jnf cerggl qnza fpnel. V jnf yvxr, JGS nz V ybbxvat ng, bu jnvg ab gung'f abg jung... Nvvrrr! Bs pbhefr gur zbivr gurnger jnf nf dhvrg nf n Wncnarfr nhqvrapr.

Jul qb gurl xrrc ba pnyyvat gur cbfg-uhzna Vasrpgrq nf mbzovrf? V thrff V qvqa'g haqrefgnaq gur pbaarpgvba orgjrra Arivyyr oernxvat uvf oybbq fnzcyr ng gur Vasrpgrq uvir nf ur gevrq gb pncgher bar Vasrpgrq sbe grfgvat.

Hard to start and stop: Loco Roco and Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time

(tags game, PlayStation Portable, Dual Screen)

I spent some free time last night trying to get into Loco Roco. Yes its cute to me and I like the visual and audio art. But I just can't seem to like the gameplay. Perhaps I'm irritated by the way it neatly summarizes that I haven't fulfilled every objective in a level. When I press "Jump" I want to be able to control, how high. I'm going to keep on slogging through this but this will be a work-alike game? I'm still in World 1 btw.

Then I woke up this morning and resumed my Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time for the DS. By resume I mean I put it down a long time ago (a year? no, more than a year) after a total in-game time of 3 hours. I put 5 more hours into it today. I must like the game to play it non-stop like that, or is it that the objectives are visible and known? In any case, after I logoff, I'm going to continue the quest.

A reflex-based RPG, yes thank you. I mean no thank you, can't I just over-level and let my stats mow down the enemies?

Idolm@ster DLC sale part 3

(tags game, Xbox 360, cosplay, bishoujo, purchase, Idolm@ster)

Another month, another Idolm@ster sale. Let's just get this over with:

See my posts on the previous sales, part 1 and part 2. This time, the 19 sale items includes the Neneko accessory set, rawr. I snapped a picture of a Yumeria Neneko clock a long time ago.

Oh and this month brings the 12th new DLC set, which is a hakama graduation dress with matching "taisho era" ribbon. 1000 XBLP for it. I'll be waiting forever for these 1000 XBLP DLCs to drop in price, me thinks.

Kodomo no Jikan DVD with "randoseru" case: Add another skeleton to your closet

(tags DVD region 2, anime, season 2007/10, loli)

No doubt as part of the elite group of anime DVD connoisseurs that have bought Kodomo no Jikan DVD 1 with the "randoseru" case, I have this sense of satisfaction:

I am enjoying this anime, no lie. What is the phrase? "Give me six sentences from any man, I can hang him in three." ? I have hanged myself hundreds of times already. Still, the novelty is buying the DVD-case size randoseru case. Using it for stuff other than holding DVDs is out of the question. But figures? It's possible.

This is some alternate universe. No I'm sure it is. Either that or the animators do not like their day jobs. Unless third graders in Japan are already doing fractional multiplication. But still, _0 x 2 = 15? In what base? Or is the teacher dishonest?

kawaii. orz

Of course, watching the DVD version, there's no censor graphics. But its the same as the manga, so there's nothing much that's new. Except for Houin-sensei's hair color. I was totally shocked that its brunette! Aw, it should be blonde.

Another thing is that the main character, Rin Kokonoe voiced by Eri Kitamura (喜多村英梨), sounds less like a child and more like a teen, what with the vocabulary and the intonation. She also sounds a little like Yukari Tamura (田村ゆかり), but my ears have deceived me before.

Having read all of the manga, I suspect this anime will subside quietly without drawing much more blog/Internet drama.

Unstack: Gradius Portable, Loco Roco, Street Fighter Alpha

(tags game, PlayStation Portable, shmup, PlayStation 2, fighting, Xbox 360, racing)

I'm reinforcing the "no" to Patapon by unearthing my stacked games. First off, though, I forgot where I put the PSP stuff so it took much effort. I decided to try out Gradius Portable before getting serious with Loco Roco. I've never played Gradius 1-4 or Gaiden enough to remember what they are. I was hoping that the game I know as Life Force (also known as Salamander) was on it but this is a different series.

So I tried out 2 and 4. Ouch, don't get hit. PSP D-pad sucks, no I suck. What!? Who is selecting my ship upgrade path? Oh "semiauto" setting. Wait, didn't I see this flaming ball stage somewhere before? Uh, that's what I get for jumping in to the series at Gradius V. I cleared some stages but no game clear. 4 seems to be a little easier than 2. I was credit feeding though, because "you (I) need more practice".

Now that I think about it, I haven't seen those Moai heads yet. Isn't this Moai head/halo bullet game(s)?

Then I hooked up my PlayStation 2 to some power to play Street Fighter Alpha. Oh, this looks great! I have one of those clamshell monitors for the PS2 with the widescreen aspect ratio. Wide makes it feel like the arcade, but too bad the screen is only 7 inches diagonal. But the best part is that there seems to be no loading times, apart from the game selection screen. Thank you Capcom, thank you. I'm going to have to track down the other Street Fighter for PS2 games like 3 Third Strike and Hyper-Fighting. I would really like to see X-Men: Children of The Atom with no load times, though.

SFA 1 (also known as Street Fighter Zero) must be my favorite Street Fighter, because Guy has those fun moves and they do meaningful damage. Ah, this Logicool pad is servicable but unsatisfying. I need a 6 button D-pad or I need to break out my HRAP (Hori Real Action Pro arcade stick). Laziness wins out.

Though I like SFA 1, credit feeding against Vega (M. Bison) got tedious. "Psycho Crusher"... "nurui wa" I played some SFA 3 but I'm not familiar with it at all. There was a "Dramatic Battle" option which I tried for the first time today. Oh, 2 on 1 huh, not much of a fair fight but die die die Vega. :-)

And as far as Xbox is concerned, there was some Burnout news eariler this month but since my region is Japan I couldn't download the new demo. Bah, I wasn't in a racing mood anyway. PGR 4 for 3000 yen? "No".

Idolm@ster DLC sale 2 ends tomorrow though. Grudgingly "yes". :-/

Pikachu love: McDonalds Happy... ga ippai

(tags food, Pikachu, kawaii, promotion, collectable, 200801, Japan)

I ate at McDonalds yesterday, so Super Size Me. Anyway there's a special Pikachu sticker promotion if I buy a McDonalds' Happy Meal starting 2008-01-01. I didn't count how many pictures of Pikachu it was but... Oh wait, its on the net: Happy 2008 Pikachu ga ippai 50 pose sticker sheet.

I'm going to do it.

I'm going to do it so I can decorate my Pikachu DS lite. I'm going to do it so I can digitize it and use it as my wallpaper (to offset all the bishoujo moe).

Uh. I will be in a McDonalds on January 1, ordering a Happy Meal. I. Am. Sad. :-/

Nipponbashi hisashiburi randomness: games and cards

(tags game, Xbox 360, Dreamcast, telephone card)

Rabi en Rose lit the fire under me to make me visit Nipponbashi Den Den Town. To summarize on the haul, first:

Today I was intent on loosening the money strings, but I came away with only 3 items, a Xbox point card 3500, Aqua Zone for the Xbox 360, and a quo card of Manabi Straight. Maybe I'm saying no to myself a lot more now. Oh wait, on Friday I actually bought that Kodomo no Jikan DVD 1 with the "randoseru" DVD case, plus the "Best Price" version of Street Fighter Zero series for the Playstation 2. :-/ I am so random.

I already "played" a couple of minutes of Aqua Zone but its a bunch of regret. I never raised fish, and I don't like learning about fish in Japanese. And it looks visually horrible on my set up. I thought it was a screen saver or something light like that. But it truly is a fish tank simulation, where you have to pick your filter and gravel and seafood and lighting and heater. WTF, just give me some defaults and let me enjoy the pretty fish.

But there's some easy Achievement points here. I swear I was playing just 15 minutes and I unlocked the "100 days simulation" Achievement for 200 points. That is so strange. Then again, according to the Internet, there's only 280 points to go then I need to buy "fish" in order to get 400 more Achievement Points. I don't think I'll bite.

So back to recalling: At A-Too used game shop I saw the "Reveal" trailer for Call of Duty 4 for Xbox 360. Wow its impressive. I downloaded the same video at home but I forgot to watch it. And there were no copies for purchase in the foreign games section! The online friends seem to have been play CoD4 online a lot. My close Xbox friend here also was playing as well. Hm, is this a fun game? No I'm not jumping for it. Sci-fi FPS for me, all the way.

Also I played a round of Shikigami no Shiro 2 on a demo Dreamcast over at the same store. It made me want to play it some more, so when I got home I opened my pristine Xbox 1 copy but it didn't play! "No compatibility update." What a "waste". My shrink-wrapped copy is now.. not shrink-wrapped (horror!). Before that I played a couple rounds of Psyvariar 2 (Xbox 1) which was pretty futile. Gotta make up for the free 200 Achievement Points. :-/

At Books Rashinbang, that Rozen Maiden 3 card telephone card set is now down to only 8_0000 yen. It's been sitting in the glass cabinet for more than a year and a half... When I first spotted it, it was 15_0000 yen. And still it's over-valued. There was also the smiling Kureha from Shining Wind as a telephone card going for 1_5000 yen, up from the 1_0000 yen at K-Books. These are all over my budget but its fun to dream.

On the street I kept on debating whether to buy a new PSP and add a 1-seg tuner to record shows with the new recording function in the latest firmware (3.80). I'm not sure about the timeshifting, though. And if I bought a new PSP, I might as well jump for the Patapon game. But then I remembered all the PSP games I bought and stacked, including Loco Roco. Ultimately, I went without.

Mission impossible failed, retry online: Gamers point card 2007/12 Rabi en Rose

(tags telephone card, failure, Koge Donbo)

On Friday night I saw that the Gamers point exchange telphone card drawn by Koge Donbo for this month was already out of stock at Kobe. Once they are gone, they are gone. I blame the high schoolers' winter vacation. So I went to Osaka today to canvas two other Gamers stores, Nipponbashi Nanba and Osaka Umeda, but of course, there's nothing. Argh. I checked the telephone card reseller areas like Books Rashinbang, K-Books, TC Paradise and Sofmap Treasure box but there was nothing to be found. Do I have to go to Kyoto or Himeji? Oh wait, Himeji is no more. My mind is playing tricks on me. Or is it that the house of Dejiko is trading at an all time low? (Edit: My mind is weak. I was thinking Animate for some reason. There was never a Gamers Himeji)

On the online front, Yahoo Auctions (keywords: キャラト テレ) has some but its going for like 2500 yen plus. I'll have to do a wait and see. Besides, I'll be in Nipponbashi again during winter break hopefully sniping some Comic Market stuff floating this way.

Makin' drama: Kimi ga Nozomu Eien "Next Season" OVA DVD 1 and assorted buying

(tags DVD region 2, anime, music)

Today was the release day for many anime, games and movies. I luckily remembered that it's also the release day for Kimi ga Nozumu Eien OVA. Excitement builds, woo (muted). There was a bunch of stuff that caught my eye but not my wallet: Macross DYRL "HD Remaster" on DVD (a pretty hefty package with all that paper, I got the note from destroy tokyo), Kodomo no Jikan DVD 1 with special "randoseru" case, Kimi Kiss DVD 1. All of these are Bandai releases. Huh. There was even a re-release of the Kimi ga Nozumu Eien TV series on DVD (廉価版). No I don't need to spend 20000 yen on something I already have.

Transformers the Movie (live action) was also on display. I kept standing around and watching it. I'll have to rent it sometime.

Also I saw Patapon for the PSP but I'll let it slide even though casual music gaming is my type of thing. It helps that it got the 35/40 Famitsu scoring (ugh I have invoked the Godwin's law of game reviews).

Nice illustrated paper cover, Kiminozo. I ripped both the Kotoko and Mikuni Shimokawa CDs on my PC while watching Kiminozo on my Xbox 360. I learned that this is a 3 DVD OVA, so I'm in it for 20000+ yen. Okay, 7000 yen for 29 minutes of anime, this better be high visual quality. It is in some parts, and other well, not so much. :(

Mizuki voiced by Chiaki Takahashi (たかはし智秋) only has one line of dialogue, but it's good. And Haruka voiced by Minami Kuribayashi (栗林みな実) is as cute as ever.

The story basically has no tension until the last part, where I was left with WTF, okay?!? :-/ Well, gotta make some drama. Now I can't wait until the next one, which according to the DVD itself is 2008-02-22.

30 minutes of entertainment went fast, so I put in the promotion video DVDs for Kaori Utatsuki (歌月カオリ). Hm, she's seems very uptight in front of the camera. And I don't believe she knows how to handle that guitar in her hands. I wonder how old she is, but she must be in her late 20s early 30s. Wikip is not helpful here.

Oh yeah, and the new Kotoko single is a miss. Plus the Mikuni Reprise CD doesn't have my favorite song which is the ending song to the 2004 TV anime Grenadier called "Kanashimi ni makenaide" (悲しみに負けないで PV and anime clip). Still its not a complete loss because Mikuni's previous CDs were heavily DRMd (thus I have been avoided purchasing them) but this release isn't. I was only lucky to have ripped the DRMd "Kanashimi ni makenaide / Kohaku" CD single because of my old Plextor drive.

Epic Yuu: a leg model or a seiyuu?

(tags seiyuu, Yuu Kobayashi)

j1mOne's recent post that included a crazy Yuu Kobayashi reminded me of this unreleased blog post which I originally wrote back on 2007-08-07.

Well I first checked out Yuu Kobayashi (小林ゆう) because she had epic legs (down, boy!) in the Animal Crossing movie book:

Yuu's heads and shoulders above the rest. Hey there's Yui Horie (堀江由衣) and Fumiko Orikasa (折笠富美子). And the short one is Misato Fukuen (福圓美里).

And now she's the front cover model of a seiyuu mook with epic legs.

The magazine came with a poster. Truly epic poster. And a DVD with a video of the photo shoot.

I find it funny though that she voices young boys, especially in this Animal Crossing film. But she's talented and practices a lot. If her apparent airheadedness is an act, then she's a real actress.

j1m0ne wrote an informative seiyuu work oriented post about her (back in 2007-06). Linkage brings up my post from horndog to fan, maybe. And her recent post has a Yuu in a cheerleading outfit picture. Truely epic. :-]...

It is coming this month, right? Ikaruga for Xbox 360

(tags game, shmup, Xbox 360, Ikaruga)

Maybe I was confused, but I thought that Ikaruga (斑鳩) is coming this month. I checked the official site, but there's no concrete release date. It says "coming this winter" so should I check my Xbox 360 on 12/21 (Winter Solstice)?

Ooh, wide screen.

I don't have wide screen, though.

It's still compiling: Gentoo "Ichigo" on VMWare

(tags Linux, Gentoo, VMWare, bug, resolved)

I'm slowly getting rid of stuff on my Project Asobi (1999) computer. One thing I'm trying to do is move a half-hearted VM built in Colinux running on Asobi into a more standard VM environment like VMWare Server. Both of them are Gentoo, and since Asobi itself is a Pentium III 500 MHz class computer, its slow going.

And I started an emerge command of 80 packages this morning, but its still not done even after about 12 hours now. None of them use X or KDE or whatever.

I tried to get DistCC going with my regular desktop but for some reason it doesn't hand off the batch jobs. I gotta figure this out for my sanity.

I did report a bug for one of the packages I like to use: "app-editors/qemacs-0.3.2_pre20070226 w/ USE=-X: install fails on copying "csstoqe"" They fixed it pretty quickly, which was nice.

Polyphonica-themed telephone cards from Geemaga

(tags illustrator, sexy, anime, telephone card, magazine)

Geemaga, that monthly game magazine that I might be confusing for an old Dreamcast-focused magazine, is offering Noboru Kannatsuki (神奈月昇, Light of Night) telephone cards. I would have never known about it except for the announcement on the Geemaga blog, "ゲーマガ2007～8年末年始「応募者全員サービステレカ」企画を見逃すべからず".

Truly hawt. Gotta pickup this magazine now.

My computer's wallpaper rotation hits the Polyphonica illustrations (神曲奏界ポリフォニカ), quite nice.

Not just a Halo 3 weekend: Hexic HD

(tags game, FPS, Halo 3, puzzle, Hexic)

Playing that Halo 3 Heroic Pack online was pretty fun. I like the maps "Standoff" and "Rat's Nest", but "Foundry" is too confining. Plus I played VIP on it too many times, ugh. I spent some time on the Ranked Team Slayer playlists, just to get my rank up. I'm tired of looking at arrowheads, but I am a long way off yet.

But that's not all I did last weekend. I played a whole lot of Hexic HD as well.

Hexic was the only free game bundled with my Xbox 360, a "50 MB" Xbox Arcade game. It's one of those falling block, 3 color clear games. I didn't understand how to play at first, but things began to click "into place", aw yeah. In fact, I was able to topple the game's (synthetic) end goal of clearing 3 "black pearls".

I scored... Huh huh huh. This game is totally addictive.

So there's just a few more Achievements I think I can complete. The timed games though aren't my style.

Whenever I'm bored with my computer (while it's compiling or whatever), I'll play this again.

Halo 3 DLC: Heroic Map pack

(tags game, Xbox 360, Halo 3, online, FPS)

So I bought the Halo 3 DLC Heroic Map Pack and I am now enjoying it while I type. It's 0.5 GB! Loading... Too bad there's only 38000 people online. 10:00 PM Japan time (+9) means 3 AM U.S. Pacific Standard Time.

Lost one, won one, but not through my skillz. I like the alternative games for a change, neutral assault, multi-flag CTF.

The Japanese dudez that are playing right now are congenial. Otsukare-sama deshita.

I played that Rat's Nest too many times, though. And got totally owned on Standoff - Territories. The other team knew how to control the Warthogs. Ouch.

Conpu H's 2007-05 Itou Noizi Telephone Cards

(tags telephone card, mail order)

I totally forgot I ordered this, but it came during the weekend via delivery guy. There's an anime/character goods magazine called Compu H's which is the group's "bishojo only visual magazine". I ordered some stuff back in August. Jeez. Three and a half months.

There were a bunch more telephone cards offered at the time, but I didn't like them. Funny how there's a pattern to this one here: All of them are anime series that have been illustrated by Noizi Itou (いとうのいぢ). The illustrations themselves are not all Itou, though. I'm not that into her illustrations but there's something undeniably moe about them.

This reminds me that I need to memo whenever I mail order stuff that takes more than two months. Uh, this says orders will come in 2009-03. orz Oh, this is a misprint announcement. Right.

Choosing games over food: Dead Or Alive 4, Ridge Racer 6, and Rumble Roses XXX

(tags game, Xbox 360, fighting, race)

I had maybe 20 minutes before my bus, so I went to the supermarket/department store Daiei. I went up to the stationary/interior floor and there was a newly opened "Wanpaku" game shop occupying the open aisles.

So I saw the games with the original covers and their cheap used price tags. Dead or Alive 4, Ridge Racer 6, and Rumble Roses XXX. Now, I don't have to look at online auctions no more. :-P Some how I feel my Xbox 360 collection is "complete" as in there's nothing more that interests me, I think. /me looks at my wish list :-o :-(

Looking at the games took too much time, and 6 PM is a pretty busy time at the supermarket, so I went home empty. Fabulous choice of priorities there. Looks like its peanuts and fried garlic for breakfast.

Anyways, I did one run with Kasumi already. Nice sakura leaves. And I did one play with Ridge Racer 6. Oh my it truly is Racing on Rails (heh Ruby on Rails 2.0). I don't know when I'm going to play that Rumble Roses XXX. Maybe when I'm totally bored.

Life-sized: Paper Moon meido and Pikachu

(tags figure, Pikachu, kawaii)

Last year around this time I was able to see Paper Moon's life size dolls. This time they seem to have done the same exhibition again, but at the Akihabara UDX building. The event is called (my trans) "Real-size Figure Anime Party In Tokyo Anime Center" 等身大フィギュアパーティーin東京アニメセンター and its on till the 14th of December.

I know the building as "Cross Field". I like passing through it whenever I'm in Akiba because its not as geeky as the rest of the area and plus there's normal restaurants there. And the Center itself caters to the mainstream, even though its about anime. So yes it was surprising to see some of the risque Paper Moon figures there (through Moeyo! Akibajin blog, of course).

But the winner today is Pikachu. Aww, so adorable. Standing on a tree stump. There's no price here, so the figure is not for sale. They need to put this figure in the middle.

I'm kinda disappointed that black bunny suited figure from last time isn't there, though the meido brigade is. In the minority were some full-size anime figures like Doraemon and Gundam. Finally, I didn't see any new Paper Moon creations. Maybe they were too hawt for this event. Do they sell the demo ones or are these just for show?

Another "good" purchase for the Xbox 360: Media Remote

(tags hardware, Xbox 360)

At the shop I picked up this small Microsoft official remote control for about 1200 yen. I thought it was a pretty good deal anyway. I suspect that this remote is supposed to be part of a bundled system, because I've never seen it before.

Its only a good deal because the media controls on the Xbox 360 using a regular game controller are confining. There's no one-touch fast forward or rewind! There's a menu that lets you do that, but that is so idiotically user unfriendly. So here we are with a remote control that can do one-touch fast forward or rewind, which is just extra hardware that makes up for a software design shortcoming. Ugh. Still it's not the complete cat's meow because there's no button for resizing video. Gah.

I spent yesterday night on trying to stream my media from my Windows XP computer (not Media Center). Before the Xbox firmware update 2007-12-04, I used the Zune software as the Xbox recommended. Unfortunately when I upgraded the Zune software, the shares weren't working right. I even had to manually restart the "Zune Network Sharing" service, so the client is pretty iffy. I considered using third party software such as the on-the-fly transcode TVersity but luckily I figured out that Windows Media Player 11 has media streaming. Yes! Delete Zune app for great justice! The shares were also wonky but I fixed it to my current satisfaction.

So I've been watching my previous iPod rips and more importantly, my downloaded game replays and shows on my Xbox 360 despite the fact I don't have a seperate TV. I am reusing one of my monitors in the dual-screen setup, so this is only for those time I am not computing.

Oh yeah, I have to wrap that remote in some kind of plastic wrap. Geez, its really been a long time since I've touch a TV remote of any kind. :-/

Steve Yegge on improving Emacs with JavaScript

(tags Emacs, Lisp, Javascript, programming, Ruby)

I must have been dozing off while reading his latest blog post the first time. Steve Yegge, formerly stealing thunder by writing a Ruby on Rails clone in JavaScript called Rhino on Rails, is now adding his touch to Emacs:

I should also mention I've been working on an Ecma-262 compliant JavaScript interpreter in Emacs-Lisp...

The short synopsis is that I'm building a complete JavaScript environment in Emacs-Lisp, with two goals: (1) create a world-class JavaScript IDE for Emacs, and (2) permit writing Emacs extensions in JavaScript, since (2a) people aren't exactly flocking to elisp, and (2b) JavaScript turns out to be a better language, now that I know them both in excruciating detail. Emacs is a great environment that needs a better extension language, and JavaScript seems well suited to navigate the popularity-vs.-elegance tightrope I'm faced with.

That's the elevator pitch: puts people to sleep in 20 seconds, guaranteed.

No, Mr. Yegge of Google and Effective Emacs fame, you have got me excited! :^)

I hate to say it, but despite the countless of hours I have been tweaking with it, Emacs Lisp is not a production language (though it must be really stable to be on version "22" (really though its version 1.22 but they dropped the 1 decades ago)). It sure doesn't have a great library situation. Then again, this infurates me because I thought Emacs Lisp "higher on the totem pole" than JavaScript, because of its macros and Common Lisp as a close relative.

JavaScript must be the world's most run language, though, because it is the basis for client-side interactivity in all major Internet browsers applications. It is Prototype-based language like Self, Lua (not just a scripting language in World of Warcraft, of course) and Io. JavaScript also lives as the Firefox extension language and as Windows Scripting engine JScript and countless other things. JavaScript allows you to flexibly model with object-orientation, but I don't see how this lets you extend the base language like Lisp macros. I mean, who wouldn't want the ability to redefine what "is" is?

;; Emacs Lisp
(flet ((is (&rest args) (what-I-define-is-is args)))
(what-was-the-question-again))

Since Yegge is only devoting 3 hours of time and will probably be able to release something in a year from now, I'll have time to bone up on more JavaScript and maybe I'll learn that I can rewrite "is" in Javascript and mean what I say.

// JavaScript
function (the_question) {
var is_original = is;
var is = what_I_define_is_is( arguments );
return the_question( arguments );
}(what_was_the_question_again);

Unfortunately this is the best I could come up with and it still doesn't do what I mean. :-/ Or is it Microsoft Windows Script Host 5.6 is unreliable? :-( Maybe I need this?

But you know what, there are already modules that allows you to write Emacs Lisp extensions in another language. For Ruby, there's el4r or EmacsLisp For Ruby. It's not as ambitious as Yegge though, because he's shooting for a JavaScript to Emacs Lisp byte code emitter and a IDE. I myself am not exactly writing Emacs stuff in Ruby though, despite my rabid fanboyism. :-(

But the cave is warm: Rubik's Cube measured times

(tags Rubik's Cube, times)

Ultimately I didn't go out today. I just remembered that next week my biannual salary "bonus" will be sitting pretty in my bank account, but not for long, heh.

So I warmed up my hands and busted out some Rubik's Cube times. This time when I mishandled the scramble, I fixed it back and tried the scramble again. So, it's been almost 54 days since my last "official" session. Have I improved greatly?

----- JNetCube Best Average for Sat Dec 08 18:24:31 GMT+09:00 2007 -----

Average: 1:09.33 (1:26.63 -17.3 last month)

Fastest Time: 53.08 (1:04.98 -11.9 last month)
Slowest Time: 1:28.25 (1:43.53)
Standard Deviation: 07.14 (9.05)

Individual Times:
1:28.25 F2 B' D L2 F2 R2 L' F U F2 R' F U2 L' U' D R L' F' L B R2 F R2 F
1:18.08 L D' L' B D2 F R' B2 U' L' D R D2 R' B' L U F U' R D2 B2 F' R L
1:12.78 B' F R2 U2 F2 R D' R' D' L B' U2 L2 B' U2 F2 U2 L' D' R B' R2 U' D R'
0:58.15 B' R' D' B' R' U2 R L' F L D2 R' U' F' L' D2 U2 L2 R2 D R2 D2 F2 R' F2
1:04.15 R' B2 D2 B2 D L U' R2 F U2 D' F' B U L2 R' U2 D2 R2 B F2 L' D' L2 B2
1:01.31 D' U' B2 F L' U' L' R2 B F D B D' B U' D' B2 D' U' F2 D L2 D U B'
1:06.44 U2 R' F' L' B' U2 B' L2 D L B D' U' B2 U2 L F2 L2 F' D L' D U' R' F2
0:53.08 R' F2 B' L2 R2 F' R2 B2 F' U2 L' D B' D R L' F2 B' L' D F' R2 L' D' B'
1:14.86 F2 B L' D L' F L2 U2 R F2 D2 L2 U L' B2 L' B F2 D' U L2 R D2 B D
1:07.31 D2 L2 R B' D' F' B D U2 L' D' R D2 B' R F B' D' R L2 B' F2 D U F2
1:19.84 R2 L' B2 R' L D2 R2 F' D2 R' L' D' R2 U2 B U2 R' U2 F2 B2 U F2 L2 D2 R
1:10.39 R D2 L2 B' U B' F' R2 D' U B' D B D2 B2 R2 F2 B U2 D' F2 B' D2 B' R

Here's a handy dandy chart showing the 6 official measurements from 2007-09-01 to today:

I'm getting faster, which is good. But maybe in 54 days I should have learned a lot more moves?

Even in Top Spin 2 I'm 99 years old

(tags game, Xbox 360, sports, tennis, Top Spin 2)

Being sick or near sickness for the last two weeks has dampened my gaming-at-home habits considerably. I only play my Rubik's Cube religiously during my commutes. But starting the week before last, I played Top Spin 2. I am really glad I picked this up because Idolm@ster isn't the gaming fun I thought it would be. I am into reflex gaming as of late, not simulations and not memorize-fests.

This is where I would put a picture of my Top Spin 2 campaign mode 2 avatar who I name "Marcelle". Mmmh. Tennis. Woman's tennis. Woman's tennis with complete costume changes and hair alterations.

Xbox games that allow complete character customization are more realistic than anime-cartoony. You know, I wished though that recently cleared Tomonobu Itakagi would get his "daughters" onto other sports, such as Dead or Alive Extreme Tennis. Just sayin' I would totally buy that. :-)

I wonder if next week's Smash Court 3 (Xbox 360) has some customization. Wait a minute: "Choose how short your shorts really are". hawr hawr, whoa damn I am creepy. :^o

I take too much time writing posts, something like an hour a post, if I add a picture or add lots of links. Screw it. I will show a picture of Top Spin 2 later.

Venturing out of my cave: "Game Show in Osaka Nipponbashi by Joshin"

(tags game, hardware, auction, Nipponbashi, Osaka, convention)

Ever since I bought a Xbox 360, started my expenses budget, and got into Rubik's Cube, I've been avoiding Osaka Nipponbashi "Den Den Town". But for some reason I am bored so I decided to at least head out in that direction. There are many things to check for:

• Dead or Alive 4 limited edition package Xbox 360 game (~3500 yen used) ::1
• Dead or Alive 4 arcade joystick by Hori (~10000 yen used!) ::1
• Ichigo Mashimaro stick poster from Dengeki 15th anniversary convention (Yahoo Auction) ::2
• Barasui cover Comic Dengeki Gakuen from Dengeki 15th anniversary convention (Yahoo Auction) ::2

::1:: check at Sofmap, A-Too shop, Big Tiger, Super Potato
::2:: check at K-Books and Mandarake

Yesterday I tried to check out the Xbox 360's joystick options. You know, the regular controller has a horrid D pad and Ikaruga (斑鳩) is coming out this month. I might as well learn how to play with a joystick. I want to get the Dead or Alive arcade stick but the Yahoo Auctions always end up greater than 1_0000 yen. This is for a "low-quality" Hori Stick! At Sofmap Kobe, the Virtual Fighter 5 Live Arena arcade stick for Xbox 360 is either all sold out (on the first day?!) or all pre-ordered (I saw all the boxes behind the register) so I couldn't get one. That's when I decided to visit Osaka.

And though I did check out that Arkanoid DS game in the shop I decided that I know what it feels like to wait for a ball and control it indirectly, remembering the first time I played Arkanoid on my Apple IIgs so long ago, so I passed on it. That Space Invaders game for the DS is on my watch list, though.

And I was reminded that Shikigami No Shiro Episode -3 (式神の城III) was coming out for the Xbox 360. It's also coming out for the Wii, huh. There's no information on if its useable with a stick or not. Still I don't know why I want to get this game because I won't play it to get my full money's worth and I haven't finished playing the second game in the series.

But on the same page, there was an announcement for the "Game Show in Osaka Nipponbashi by Joshin" (ゲームショー2007 in大阪日本橋 by Joshin 公式ホームページ) happening right now. Now I must go to Osaka. I can try out the game, I suppose, but I don't expect my opinion to change. There's plenty of new games too: Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword (DS), Patapon (PSP), as per the usual Final Fantasy stuff. Takahashi Meijin will be there for a talk show and game event. But oh no, there are game "companions" and I don't expect to actually get inside becuase they are holding it inside two Japanese-sized stores. I'll probably be waiting on the staircase for hours. :-/

Get ready now! >:-o

Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon install-fest of 1

(tags Linux)

I am installing Ubuntu 7.10 "Gutsy Gibbon" right now. :-)

Of course, only into a virtual machine. I am using it at work as one of my work environment, and I like what I see. I need to learn more about the Smart Common Input Method (SCIM), because its defaults slow me down when typing in Japanese. Perhaps there really is some worth in buying the ATOK IME for Linux, that or I need to ween myself off of Microsoft IME.

On the release day or pretty close to that, I tried out the Ubuntu Server edition, but it did not install properly inside a VMWare Server instance. I really did want to try that to learn about encryption and LVM. There's so much about Linux distros that I need to learn. My toy Gentoo environments are console-based, so I'm missing out on the Linux Desktop Way.

"Hazumu" digs Halo 3

(tags seiyuu, FPS, Xbox 360, Halo 3)

Totally late with this, but I found it amusing. Kana Ueda (植田佳奈, picture), the voice of Hazumu from my last year's most favorite anime, Kasimasi (かしまし), totally digs Halo 3, to the point of playing it for 16 hours straight. (Thanks Kotaku)

Now that's my kinda seiyuu. Ha ha.

Auction sniping from afar: Sekaimon JP <--> USA

(tags online, auction, ECsite)

My Japanese teacher mentioned that Yahoo Auction JP and Ebay USA are teaming up to make a "worldwide" auction site called Sekaimon. Currently it's just Japan and USA only.

I remember that Yahoo Auction USA left the market this year, but Yahoo Auction JP has strong traction in Japan. The service, starting today (but currently down, ha) will allow Yahoo Auction JP users to bid on Ebay (USA only?) items. Coming next year, Ebay USA users will have the ability to bid on Yahoo Auction JP stuff. There will be a company translating the item details for each auction. Prepare for "make your time" language shenanigans.

How shipping will be done remains to be seen. Given most Yahoo Auctions I've seen are domestic only, this Sekaimon better have a shipping service that makes it easy on sellers.

What I want for Christmas

(tags hardware, emacs)

Consider that every day on this blog is like a unrestrained Christmas morning. Not quite a Nintendo 64 Christmas morning, though.

But anyway.

Emacs. On a Asus eee PC. This is totally sweet. (picture)

More finger exercising: Skewb, Pyraminx, and 7 days book

(tags Rubik's Cube, puzzle, book)

There is a reason why I scope Toys 'R Us every week. Puzzles, physical puzzles that don't require electricity, portable physical puzzles.

I saw some alternative rotation shape puzzles on Rubik's Cube no hoshi. I thought, yeah that's nice. But then I found them at the store, so I picked up the "Skewb" and "Pyraminx", but passed on the more complicated "Dekaminx". The Pyraminx reminds me of my time in walking around with the family at the old Swap Meet. You know, people selling knock off stuff that maybe isn't licensed for over-the-counter sale. Back then I had a toy similar to the Pyraminx but my patience broke and so did the toy.

Let's see if I fare any better at trying to solve these by myself.

And then, by chance on one of my blogrolls I saw a link to this book Rubik's Cube 7 Days Concentration Training: Mastering Speed Cubing (ルーブックキューブ7日間集中トレーニング～スピードキューブ完全マスター) by Katsuyuki Konishi (小西克幸) (ISBN 978-4-88380-677-5). It seems to be a distillation or embellishment of the author's free site Planet Puzzle. The author himself is the current vice president of the JRCA (Japan Rubik Cube Association, 日本ルービックキューブ協会の副会長), and holds a number of contest records in the previous years. Amazon showed it as sold out, but my local Junkudo had it FTW.

This book is more promising that a previous Rubik's Cube book I bought because it teaches the basics of speed cubing, like Finger ShortCuts (FSC) and the pros and cons of doing the first step "blue cross" on the top, bottom, or side. There's even a "before you go crazy on the cube, make sure to do this" section, which starts off with "practice every day, even just 5 minutes" and "don't give up" which is good. But then there's more suggestions like "make sure to keep in good touch with your family" and "eat three meals a day" and "sleep good", which sounds kinda wonky.

Basically this book teaches you the LBL method that all the other recent books and puzzle supplements explain. The latter parts of the book do show the same endgame 57 OLL positions and 21 PLL positions, but the notation is different. It is possible that the moves are different as well, because some of the basic moves in the F2L are heavy on the F, R and U faces, unlikemy previous tutorials. The author suggests to "remember at the hyphens" within the notation, which really is helpful. In short, there seems to be more meat to chew on here. Plus the book readily references the videos available at the original site, so those who can't grok the Rubik's Cube notation aren't left out in the cold.

BTW, my average Rubik's Cube times are still hovering around 60 to 80 seconds. I measure them during my lunch break, but I only consider a 12 cube run an official time so no stats for now.

Why can't the video games be made out of paper?

(tags finance, game, book, Wii)

I was reading over my Get Rich Slowly feed and the blogger J.D. had a interesting article about the Amazon Kindle ebook vs Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited subscription vs Wii Virtual Console game service ("Brief Thoughts on Modern Entertainment"). First off, a blog about Personal Finance would seem to be the last place I would hear about comics and video games, but people have their vices I suppose.

Basically J.D. was thumbs down on newly digitized media that has old-world equivalents. Books and comics just aren't as appealing and as sturdy when e-ified. But J.D. gave a pass on the Wii Virtual Console. This struck me as a double standard, really. Just substitute video games in those sentences:

• I can read a ___ in the bathtub.
• If I drop a ___ — which I sometimes do — it’s not going to break.
• My ___ don’t run out of power.
• When I’m finished with my ____, I can loan them to friends. Or sell them.

Since we assume that video games must be powered by electricity and must be housed in delicate electronics, our standards of worth changes. But entertainment is entertainment.

Through the comments on this blog I learned that the Wii Virtual Console is also a per-console purchase system, like the Xbox Live. And sometime during November I learned that one Wii cannot hold all offered Virtual Console games. With restrictions like these and hardware that I dearly paid for breaking left and right, I am slowly questioning my gaming hobby purchases.

Questioning, yes, but not stopping. Ha.

Coming back home to Google Reader: disappointing FastLadder evaluation

(tags blog, application, online, failure)

I was motivated by the Planet Emacs resident antipop's post about FastLadder, a web-based feed reader, so I gave it a week. Fastladder has some good ideas and great performance, but I am totally used to post-based read marking, so now I'm back to Google Reader for good.

Here is the list of advantages and disadvantages I see.

• + Unbelievably fast for moving from post to post, feed to feed. Almost as fast as your key repeat (Google Reader cannot do this)
• + Natural keyboard shortcuts+ Pin the interesting posts then open them all with one key stroke (Google Reader cannot do this)
• + default can be set to sort oldest first (Google Reader cannot do this)
• - Cannot mark individual posts as read, forcing you to read the whole feed at once
• - "Mark as read" link only at the top, not at the bottom
• - Formatting of pictures not preserved (no centering)
• - no keyboard shortcut to mark feed as read.
• - clicking on a post body does not move the page (a Google Reader feature)
• Not evaluated: Open ID compatible (Google Reader does not have this)

Basically the deal-breaker for me was the first disadvantage. I often like to go into a feed, but then skip it. It's the "why did I walk into this room?" syndrome? Or, you know those heavy photo-expose feeds like Engadget? I like to jump in and out so that the read items are purged from browser memory. With Fastladder I would go into a feed, but then by default it would mark the whole feed as read. I turned off this function but then the manual way to mark as read made me scroll all the way back to the top. Dumb dumb dumb.

Coming back to Google Reader feels natural, but I miss the speed. I am now going to memorize the keyboard shortcuts.

Overpriced Speed Stack Timer

(tags game, Rubik's Cube, ECsite)

Never go to Toys 'R Us on a weekend, especially in December. OMG, is it crowded with the young and the parental. I was hoping to find a Rubik's Magic, which MegaHouse will be republishing soon (thanks Rubik Cube Diary ルービックキューブ日記), but there was none. Of course there isn't any because there isn't a release date listed. But it doesn't stop me from visiting the store to check out the special Rubik's Cube display and the bargain binned video games.

I looked at the store flyer and I noticed something I wanted, a Speed Stack timer. Unfortunately it's only bundled with a "Speed Stacks Stack Pack", which is 5000 yen. I don't care about Speed Stacking and I think that hobby should just go away. Rubik's Cube is much better. :-p (I kid I kid!)

Still what this Speed Stacking company has done is commendable, which is creating the timing devices for Speed Cubing contests. But as you can see the stacking cups only kit is 1800 yen, and the DVD is priced at 800 yen, which makes the remaining items of timer and mat a 2400 yen value. Come on now.

I checked their online store and the timer only item seems to be missing from the Japanese part, but available (not updated?) in the English version. Bleh, 4000 yen for the additional features of memory and a connection port to the competition LED display.

Let's just stick with the competently full-featured, de facto standard JNetCube program on my computer for timings, okay?!

Hooray for cuteness: Gamers character goods 2007/11 and Goshuushou-sama Ninomiya-kun

(tags illustrator, character goods, music, anime)

A week ago on 2007-11-21 I picked up the Gamers point exchange telephone card. This time it's cute Petit Charat, but with green eyes. She normally has brown eyes, right? What is with this iris color change thing anyway? I did not anticipate the other point exchange item, which is the "light novel" yellow book cover made of really flimsy canvas-like material. Still, Dijiko FTW!

The telephone card was unadvertised that month, which worried me. Was the period where there were no telephone card item during the 2007 Summer a real break or did I miss something? I am uneasy. But I'm fine, really. :-(

Today I picked up the opening and ending theme of the 2007-10 anime Goshuushou-sama Ninomiya-kun (ご愁傷さま二ノ宮くん). I am a sucker for the cutesy moe voices by Mai Kadowaki and Miyuki Sawashiro (門脇舞以 & 沢城みゆき). A cheerleader's "hooray hooray" turns into "furefure" in Japanese, heh.

Also purchased but not pictured was the limited edition of Nana Mizuki (水樹奈々) latest CD+DVD release, Great Activity. I'm a week late on this recent release, but it still came with a goodie, a slightly large picture of the seiyuu-diva herself. I heard one ballad from the CD at Animate (I think it's "Last Scene" 「ラストシーン」) and it was enthralling so... Normally I'm not into her but I don't doubt her talent.

BTW, it shocked me to learn some time ago that she wanted to be a enka singer. Luckily for us of the moe pursuasion she puts her full concentration on being the imouto-voice seiyuu, haha.

Extracting the rest of the fun out of Unreal Tournament 3

(tags game, Unreal Tournament, FPS, failure, programming, quotation)

Well Saturday afternoon was altogether a disappointment on the Unreal Tournament 3 front. I can't play UT3 and have fun at the same time because of my slow computer Project Sugar. For example, on the first campaign map, which is just one-on-one deathmatch with your character's sister "Jester", my computer freezes then revives then freezes, in about 2 minute intervals. If I turn off the ATI video card "VPU Crash Utility", I can complete the map but with these painful 30 second black screen interruptions. :-( Never mind that the graphics are rendered at 320x200 with double-sizing and the mouse feels laggy. At least I can log in with my "CD-KEY" so its not pre-h4XX0r'd.

So I decided to see what else I can do. I ran the Credits, probably the last thing I would do if ever. Now I know why the install directory is 6+ GB. There's pictures of all the developer and artists in there. Heh.

Tim Sweeney: "It is easier to change the world than to adapt to it."

Tim Sweeney is one of my personal programmer heros. I would personally rank him over John Carmack because the former is frequently thinking about higher-level programming idioms as well as making game engines. Well it's my humble opinion that making programming easier for people has more priority than tuning to the machine. Maybe this is an ivory tower versus everyman battle, since John Carmack is also very inspirational with his code-for-all open-source stance.

I was a bit surprised with his low-key presence in UT3. Then again he's reportedly off in the clouds thinking about the next game engine, Unreal Engine 4.

Instead of thanking his support, Sweeney chose to be inspiring. This seems to be a rephrasing of a George Bernard Shaw quote: "The reasonable man adapts himself to the conditions that surround him... The unreasonable man adapts surrounding conditions to himself... All progress depends on the unreasonable man." Go progress!

Cliff Bleszinski: "Love is the triumph of imagination over intelligence."

Cliff Bleszinski is also one of my heroes, not just because we share first names. He's a gamer turned game dev and is really good at map flow, speeches and hyping. But I don't know if he programs or what. I do know he's pretty artistic with his CliffyB's Ownage Map selections from UT99 and UT2004 (sadly dead link?). His quote is acutally directly lifted from H.L. Mencken. I still wonder why Mencken said that originally.

In any case, UT3 will be sitting on my hard drive unused. And, no I can't extract the music because its locked up. Looks like I'll have to buy the soundtrack. Whoa, this site has all the soundtracks I have been wanting recently, Halo 3, UT3, and Mass Effect.

The only fun I'll have: Installing Unreal Tournament 3

(tags game, Windows, FPS, Unreal Tournament)

I was surprised again when just this morning my Unreal Tournament 3 Collectors Edition box came. I payed by bank transfer yesterday at 1300. Then again the shop is based in the Kinki region.

The back is mainly in English with some French. Then again there's a ESRB label. Whoa it looks scratched up. And I open it but the "tin case" is dented in some areas grumble grumble. And what's this? The case has places to put the discs, but the three discs are in paper sleeves. Um. Is this copy pre-h4XXor'd? :-/

So I started installing about 40 minutes ago and it's still going. Language selections that remind me of a Euro release. Let's see if my DVD key works. :-/

You still buy stickers at your age? Rubik's Cube replacements

(tags rubik's cube, mail order)

I ordered the MegaHouse seal/sticker replacements for my Rubik's Cubes on Monday, and the package suprisingly came on Friday.

I was worried that it wouldn't come with instructions. Well how hard could it be? But what I really wanted was a sticker removal "blade". That picture up there makes it look so easy.